The real skinny

Their diets are joyless, their attitude to food unhealthy, so why do the superthin still make us feel so inadequate?

T
ry this: “Self-hate [is] a catalyst for self-improvement.” Or this: “The
cellulite hanging over your jeans you don’t fit [sic] & your
chafing thighs do not constitute curvy, stop using that term you disgrace.”
Choking yet? Then take this: “Breakfast? You don’t deserve to be awake, let
alone food. You are horrible. We both know it. You are disgusting. You are
fat.”

These comments caused a storm on Twitter at the beginning of the year, when
Kenneth Tong, the former Big Brother contestant and general
attention-seeker, began championing “managed anorexia” and a forthcoming
diet pill that could help you achieve size zero. Okay, he then said it was a
hoax, a bid to prove how quickly Twitter can catapult you to the front row
of fame (and let us not give Tong any more attention here than he deserves),
but what was interesting were the Twitter responses sandwiched between the